


Run Carmen, Run!

by KeepCaliforniaDreamin



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Bittersweet Ending, Bounty Hunter, Carmen & Player friendship, Gen, Parkour, Player (Carmen Sandiego) - Freeform, Psychological Drama, Suspense, Thriller, black sheep, carmen sandiego - Freeform, kunoichi - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24666769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeepCaliforniaDreamin/pseuds/KeepCaliforniaDreamin
Summary: Carmen goes for a jog to try and clear her mind only to run afoul with a kunoichi who has been trying to hunt her down. With no one to turn to and no other option, Carmen is forced to allude this deadly new enemy in a wicked awesome parkour chase through the streets and sights of San Diego! Will she succeed or will this new assassin add another bounty to her list?
Relationships: Player & Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep
Comments: 5
Kudos: 20





	1. Run Carmen, Run!

So I thought of this crazy one-shot idea. What if Carmen were alone and faced with a crazed assassin who can match her tit for tat? Yeah, that sounds fun, right? This is what happens when you're bored. Rated T for blood, violence, alcohol. Do leave a comment and enjoy.

Kunoichi (n) Koon-OH-EECH: A female ninja or female practitioner of ninjutsu. Often regarded by their skills as assassins, spies, and warriors. Trained in various martial arts as well as in the art of hand-to-hand weaponry.

Carmen Sandiego (proper n) KAR-men SAN-dee-egg-OH: A badass thief who steals from other thieves and gives the proceeds back to charitable causes. Known for her skills in thievery, combat, trickery, confidence, martial arts, and world history.

The sun was setting in sunny San Diego, California. The coastal California border town was a sight to behold. It was a perfect place to catch a sunset, some surf off the shores of La Jolla, or enjoy the famous Zoo in nearby Balboa Park.

But for our story, we'll focus on our red coated heroine: Carmen Sandiego. She, Zack, and Ivy, had just returned from another successful mission in taking down their enemy number one: V.I.L.E. This time, their journey took them to Switzerland, where they stopped V.I.L.E. from syphoning money from various Swiss bank accounts linked to contractors who assist in government programs for the needy; totally up Carmen's alley.

It was a rough mission, and despite the relatively early time, Carmen was in desperate need for some shut-eye. She had staggered into her room in Carmen HQ. It was about as plain as you would have thought it to be, it had her bed, a desk complete with laptop and desk globe atlas, and her wardrobe which consisted of many outfits all in her trademark red. There was also a giant flat screen on a wall on the other side of her bed. Carmen yawned and lazily cast aside her duster and fedora and flopped on top of her bed, paid for on V.I.L.E.'s dime, of course. After a brief moment of glorious sleep her monitor popped on and was illuminated by her number one partner in crime (fighting), Player.

"Hey Red."

"Gah!" his surprise wakeup call spooked Carmen out of her semi-sleep state. The white hat hacker chuckled at his successful prank. "Player!"

"I'm sorry, but I had to."

"Sure you did" Carmen rolled her eyes and yawned, sitting at the foot of her bed. "What's up? Don't tell me you have a new mission already."

"No, just checking in."

"Aw, you sound bored" Carmen cooed sarcastically.

"No, if I was bored I would've asked Zack to do his Clint Eastwood impression."

"To his credit, he doesn't do a bad job" Carmen nodded.

"Anyway, all the money is right back in your charities accounts where it belongs" Player explained.

"Good. That'll teach V.I.L.E. to mess with the underprivileged" Carmen sneered.

"You should really think about taking a break. I mean Shadowsan can totally pick up the extra slack. Wouldn't be the first time" he suggested.

"I hate it when you're right" Carmen yawned. "How about that other thing?"

"What other thing?" Player asked.

"You know…" Carmen reminded him with stringency.

"Oh-oh, right. Not much. Vera Cruz once had a residence in the Los Angeles area…one forever ago in Barcelona, and paid a phone bill at an address in Sicily. Other than that, just your dad's Buenos Aires mansion."

Carmen sighed. "You keep on it."

"Okay Red, but get some sleep, will ya?" Player begged.

"I will, don't worry. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Good, see you then" the call disconnected.

Carmen kicked her shoes off and crawled into bed, still in her black combat-ready undershirt and pants. She often found sleeping to be a chore, especially when her brain was always elsewhere. Ever since Carmen knew she may have a mother somewhere in the world, it was all she could think about, even when her primary task was taking down V.I.L.E.

Feeling restless, she got up and went to her laptop. She opened it up revealing an interactive message board containing serial-killer level string connections to all the information she knew about her mother. A board so convoluted in its scope it would make Chase Devineaux proud. Camren did her best to posit different hypotheses as to her mother's whereabouts, but with little information and in a world of seven billion inhabitants and growing, it seemed like a fools errand. Carmen continued to draw up conclusions based on the A.C.M.E. file of the night of her father's demise and her subsequent "liberation" by Shadowsan on that faithful night. She was getting nowhere.

Annoyed and frustrated, Carmen spun around in her swivel chair. "You've got to be out there somewhere! But where!?" she fumed.

She went to her bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She was tired but couldn't sleep, content, but not happy, and formidable, but not sound; all in all, it was the perfect trappings of a protagonist with a problem on her hands. Carmen splashed some cold water on her face. She looked at her dripping mug in the mirror again. The silence seemed deafening. All she could hear were the water droplets hitting the sink, and the fluorescent lights whirring overhead. Carmen shook herself and sighed. She had to get out of the lair, not even for a mission, just to clear her mind.

She got dressed in her black t-shirt, sweatpants, and red hoodie. She looked at the arsenal of gadgets in front of her, all of Ivy's design. Carmen mulled the idea of taking something, but instead took only her earing headphones and her phone. She got on her red running shoes and headed out.

She passed Shadowsan's dojo, where her former teacher-turned-associate noticed his former student-turned-boss walk by. "And where are you going?" he asked a bit too fatherly. Carmen walked to his doorway.

"I'm going out for a jog" she explained.

"It's nearly eight o'clock at night. And you just returned from a mission."

"Well, I can't sleep, and running always helps clear my head."

"What exactly do you need to clear?" he asked.

"N-nothing. I'm just going around the neighborhood, I'm not taking a pitstop in Tijuana" Carmen half-joked.

"Carm—"

"Hey, last time I checked, I'm the boss of this outfit. And if I want to go for a jog, I'm going for a jog" Carmen insisted.

"I know you are stressed" Shadowsan added.

"I'm fine. I'll be back soon" Carmen then walked away. Before she could get to the stairs, Shadowsan exited his dojo and called to her.

"We will find her, Carmen. I promise!"

Carmen turned back to him and gave him a small nod before heading to the stairs.

(If my knowledge of San Diego is correct given the information of Carmen's base at our disposal, it's probably near the harbor next to San Diego Bay, which means it's not too far from Downtown, where the esplanade, city skyline and convention center is…yes, it's the one that hosts San Diego Comic Con)

Carmen started her jog out of the harbor and into the neighboring Barrio Logan neighborhood. It was a mostly Hispanic, mostly residential part of town just southeast of Downtown. Carmen really enjoyed taking her occasional constitutionals through this neighborhood. These were her kind of people: salt-of-the-earth, family oriented, and counted their blessings. They weren't caught up in thrills, thefts, or other criminal activities, they were just regular punch-in, punch-out average joes…and janes.

After a few laps around the neighborhood, Carmen's stomach was rumbling. She was sweaty, she was tired, and she was hungry. The hunger part she could satisfy. She could smell the delicious aroma of carne asada from three blocks away. It was a small restaurant attached to a house on the side of a random residential home: Jorge's Taqueria. It was a modest venue, where a man named Jorge Arciniega lived with his family and cooked traditional Mexican dishes for his community and turn a profit in the process. Carmen liked to frequent Jorge's establishment mostly because she liked the local flair, and he was a nice guy.

Despite Carmen's shift in mood, she could feel a looming presence in the air. It was a presence she felt for the last several laps around the neighborhood. But, she figured it was nothing. She happily stood in line at the ordering booth. Jorge, a portly man with a very large mustache was there to greet her. "Oh! Buenas noches, señorita."

"Buenos noches, Jorge."

"I see you around here a lot. Your Spanish is good, too good."

"I'm from Argentina" Carmen explained, digging some money she had in her coat pocket. "Buenos Aires."

"What brings you to America?" Jorge asked.

"Just…chasing a dream."

"We've all been there. What would you like?"

"Tostada. Carne. Un, fresa Jarritos, por favor."

"Carne tostada, fresa Jarritos, coming up." As he said that, Carmen put her money on the table, and was instantly rewarded with an open glass bottle of the red Mexican soda. Carmen got her food and found an empty seat at a table which was part of Jorge's front yard. Carmen could still feel that presence.

As she enjoyed her tostada, Carmen felt a strange wind blow behind her. She was naturally paranoid as she spent over a year dodging A.C.M.E., V.I.L.E. and God knows who else, so she looked over her shoulder. As she turned back suddenly, the chair in front of her was now occupied, startling the Latina.

"Whoa! What the…?"

In front of Carmen sat the very looming presence she was fearing. It was a woman around her age. She was Asian, with fair skin, wearing very blended red and black eye makeup. She had piercing brown eyes, and raven hair with bangs which extended down to the tops of her shoulders. She had on a dark cloak with a hood and several small plates of silver armor on her body, namely her torso, wrists, and knees. She had black gloves and a tight black outfit underneath the armor, never mind the arsenal of weaponry she had on her. She also wore a metal face mask covering her nose and mouth. She also had a bottle of Jarritos, this one was the cola, a darker color, almost black, opposed to Carmen's fresa (strawberry) soda, in red.

"Um…hi?" a confused Carmen said.

"I figured if I tracked you somewhere public, it would make this much easier" the woman said in a sinisterly sweet sounding voice.

Carmen was confused…I mean, she had a few ideas who this person could have been, or who they worked for, but she felt it wise to play dumb, hoping there was a sliver of a chance this was merely a case of mistaken identity.

"I'm sorry, I think there may be a mistake" Carmen explained slowly.

"Oh, there's no mistake: Carmen Sandiego" the woman said with confidence, which made Carmen's heart sank, killing her hopes of this being a misunderstanding.

Ever the persistent one, Carmen decided to soldier on with her less-than-carefully-planned ruse. "Carmen who-now? No, You definitely have the wrong person, I am—"

"Scarlet Santa Rosa?" the woman said, to Carmen's befuddlement. "Or, is it the Crimson Phantom…La Femme Rouge perhaps…Black Sheep?"

Carmen gritted her teeth, the jig was up. But how did this person know so much about her? Though half her face was covered, Carmen never saw this woman before in her life. She must've been a new V.I.L.E. operative, there was no other explanation. Carmen sighed. She looked around to see if their presence was causing a scene—

"Don't worry, no one suspects anything" the woman said, anticipating Carmen's head turning.

"Suspects what, exactly? Who are you? You clearly know who I am."

"I know everything there is to know about you…except where you've chosen to hang your fedora, so to speak. I know it must be somewhere here in the San Diego area given your constant return flights from your various global exploits."

Carmen rolled her eyes, yet another reason why she didn't want a stationary headquarters. "Look, why don't you cut to the chase and tell me who you are, and what you want with me?" Carmen insisted.

"I'm Akari" she explained, to Carmen's raised eyebrow.

"Like…the video game?"

Akari grumbled. "No, that's Atari. T-T-T-Tari, get it? Akari. With a K. It's Japanese, it means lights."

"So, it's your name? Not a code name?" Carmen asked.

"Correct."

"So…" Carmen looked around and then leaned in for a whisper. "You don't work for V.I.L.E?"

"Not hardly. But I'm sure if I did I'd be three times the thief any of them are" Akari explained glibly.

"Okay, so what do you want with me?" Carmen asked.

"I was paid to do the impossible; a task nobody wanted or were too scared or incompetent to accomplish: apprehend Carmen Sandiego."

"You work for the police? A.C.M.E.?"

"I work for myself, and my boss when he was work for me. I was paid a lot—and I mean a lot of money to bring you in, Carmen, and I plan on delivering."

"Who was it?" Carmen demanded.

"Even if I did know who it was per say, I wouldn't tell you."

"Chase Devineaux?"

"That bumbling idiot? Ha! He couldn't afford me."

"Tamara Fraser?" Carmen asked with a raised eyebrow invoking the chief of A.C.M.E.'s actual name.

"Again, I don't know, all I know is, you are here, and the police station is waaaaaaaay, over there." Akari got a pair of handcuffs off of a loop on her belt and placed them on the table. "I have a gun pointed at you under the table, and I will not hesitate to cause a scene in this lovely man's establishment if you do not cooperate."

Carmen crossed her arms. "Nice try. You don't think I can get out of this?"

"But think of the collateral damage? This is clearly this man's livelihood, imagine having a police investigation over a trivial matter? He could be closed down for months? Do you think Jorge could float a business loan to keep the place running in that time, hmm? Why do you think I chose here and not in some alleyway, I wanted this to be in a place that was not only public, but where you'd have to choose between the precious people you're trying so desperately to help in the world…or your freedom" Akari smirked.

Carmen's eyes went wide. This wasn't just some cliched-costumed-knock-around from V.I.L.E., this was a calculating, and cruel assassin/bounty hunter for hire. Carmen stared at the silver cuffs and then back at Akari, who briefly removed her mask to take a victory sip of her soda.

"You wouldn't?"

"Wouldn't I?" Akari asked. "You barely know me, and I promise, I know most everything there is to know about you, Carmen Sandiego. And I can promise you, if you take away anything from meeting me, it's that I will do whatever it takes to win. And right now, winning for me is heavily contingent of you cuffing those dainty little wrists of yours like a good little girl and following me quietly to my car, where we will drop you off at the local police precinct, and go our separate ways—well, I'll go my own way while you find yourself in a concrete room with barred doors."

Carmen's eyes started to well up. She looked around as more and more locals were lining up as the smell of amazing Mexican cuisine permeated the neighborhood. Carmen looked back at the soulless woman in front of her.

"If I have to shoot you to bring you in, I will. And then Jorge has a pretty big PR problem on his hands, doesn't he?" Carmen wiped some tears from her face. "Go ahead, tell me I'm cruel, I don't really care. But I won't hesitate. So do it" Akari insisted.

Carmen looked around one last time. There were a few ways she could avoid Akari's supposed gunfire if she made a move. Carmen could easily have gotten out of this situation, Coach Brunt and Shadowsan taught her well, but this was different. This could be Jorge's livelihood on the line. With a heavy heart, and shaky hands, she grabbed the cuffs and locked her wrists together. She sarcastically held them up to prove they were bound.

"See, now was that so hard?" Akari asked sarcastically.

Carmen stood up. "Hurry up."

Akari stood up, where Carmen noticed she surreptitiously move a silver Walther PPK pistol into a holster on her belt. She ushered the Latina away from the restaurant, her hands still cuffed in front of her. Nobody still seemed to notice anything. Akari led Carmen to the next block, while the red-hatted anti-hero desperately looked for a way out of her predicament. She looked ahead of her and multiple blocks away eyed up the skyline of San Diego.

"So, you happen to know about my other friends?" Carmen asked.

"Are you referring to Shadowsan?" Akari asked. "More importantly, are you assuming two Japanese people just happen to know each other? Lot of people live there. But no, my only task was to take you in, no one else."

"You are aware, if I am out of the picture, V.I.L.E. wins? You know everything about me, so you must know what I do."

"Of course I do, and while it's a shame, I still have a job to do."

"How much?" A desperate Carmen asked.

"How much, what? Are you bribing me? That's gotta be a new low for you. No one can bribe me. Obviously I love to get paid, but the thrill of adding another bounty to my list fills me with more joy than you could possibly imagine" Akari chuckled.

"Based on your outfit, you're a wannabe kunoichi?" Carmen asked, desperately trying to find a way to freedom.

"Kunoichi, yes. Wannabe, no. And don't worry. I don't think prison's as bad as you're probably picturing it. It's probably worse."

Carmen then saw a San Diego Police Cruiser speed past them with its lights and sirens flashing, which provided Akari a slight moment to look away from her captive. Carmen then turned quickly and swung her cuffed hands at Akari, knocking her face plate right off and her onto the ground. Carmen fell on top of her and kneed her in the hip, fumbling around for the keys. Just as Akari kicked Carmen off of her, the Latina scored the silver handcuff keys. She landed with a thud and quickly uncuffed herself, dropping the cuffs and keys before quickly taking off at full sprint down the sidewalk.

"Big mistake, Sandiego!" Akari called.

Carmen was so frazzled, she didn't even notice, her phone fall out of her pocket. Oh, but Akari seemed to notice. She got to her feet and picked up the cuffs and keys, but noticed the phone. She smirked and picked it up.

"I love it when they run" Akari mused before taking off after Carmen.

Carmen sprinted across the street, dodging some cars who were forced to stop quickly. She was followed by an ever persistent Akari who leaped over the hoods of the stopped cars, pursuing her prey. Carmen ran into a back alleyway and stopped after seeing it led to a dead end. Thinking on her feet Carmen did a few parkour jumps onto a dumpster, and then on top of a wood fence before backflipping into a yard. She ran into multiple yards with Akari close behind her.

The two ran into yard after yard, Akari closing in on the Crimson Phantom. Carmen was used to running away by now, but usually at the bungling hands of Chase Devineaux or the over confidence of A.C.M.E. Akari proved to be much different. She was nimble, she was deadly, and she only had one goal in mind: catching Carmen Sandiego.

After hurdling over another fence, the two passed a backyard cookout where carne asada was once again the star of the show. "Ooh, smells good!" Carmen called, running past.

Another jump into the next yard, and a romantic couple, Jane and Rafael, were in a hot tub, celebrating the move into their first home. Rafael popped a bottle of the finest cheaply made champagne a budget can buy.

"This is perfect" Jane said happily.

"And it only gets better" Rafael winked, pouring two champagne flutes. But just as he did, Carmen jumped in and flipped over the hot tub.

"Sorry about this! Trying to escape!"

Akari jumped over but inadvertently knocked over Rafael's bottle of champagne which broke and dumped into the hot tub, effectively and instantly ruining his and Jane's "perfect" evening.

"Who was the lady in red?" Jane asked, to Rafael's defeated shrug.

Onto the next yard, some youths were having a soccer match, two of them were fighting over who gets to pretend to be Cristiano Ronaldo. (He's still relevant, right?) Anyway, as they were doing some practice dribbles, Carmen swooped into their backyard field, her quick-witted brain hatching an idea. She saw Akari was right behind her.

"Can I play?" she asked, immediately stealing the ball. "Thanks" she did a few ankle, to knee, to foot tricks before giving it a monster kick, right into Akari's gut, knocking her down. "Goal" Carmen smirked, while the other youths shouted goooooooooaaaaaaaaaallll!

Onto the next yard, which wasn't a yard but an alleyway, which across from it was an old and derelict apartment building. They were on the edge of Downtown San Diego. Carmen spotted the fire escape and hopped onto the ladder leading up to it. She got enough hops to grab onto the bottom rung just as Akari jumped into the alleyway.

"Oh, no you don't!"

Before Carmen could get her legs onto the bottom rung, Akari jumped and grabbed them, trying to pull her back to ground. "No!" Carmen screamed. She tried to use all her might to get to the fire escape, but alas, this failed, and Akari threw her to the ground. (In the screenwriting world, this is what we call "good news, bad news" you're gonna see a lot of this.)

Carmen leaped to her feet, while Akari took out three bladed shuriken sticking them between her fingers. They're those ninja throwing stars, by the way. As she launched them, Carmen did some serious Matrix slide and ducks, and in slow motion we see the shuriken crest above her as she slides to the ground, he last one cutting off just a tiny strand of her hair.

As Carmen slid, and continued to tackle Akari to the ground, before jumping up to the fire escape again, this time, making it up. She pulled the ladder above the catwalk, so Akari couldn't follow her. For a moment, the cat and mouse stared each other down.

"Give up yet?" Akari huffed. "You think a little inconvenience is gonna stop me, Carmen? Let's forget the money for a minute, because it is more than you could possibly imagine, but think of the respect I will receive to be the lone wolf that captured the elusive Carmen Sandiego!"

Carmen panted, a bit out of breath. "And if you think I'm gonna let you take that credit, you are sadly mistaken!"

"Well, have it your way" Akari shrugged and smirked. From under her cloak, she took out a Heckler&Koch MP7 submachine gun, complete with forward grip, red-dot sight, and silencer. Carmen's eyes widened. "I know I'm supposed to bring you in alive…" and now an extreme close-up on Akari's smirking face. "But they never said uninjured."

Carmen cartwheeled her way up the stairs to the fire escape as Akari fired aimlessly . Carmen could feel the wind of the bullets whizz past her as she continued her climb. Finally, as one hit the side of her jacket, barely missing her hip. Carmen swung her weight into one of the boarded up windows of the fire escape and flopped in pain inside the dark and empty apartment.

Carmen, a bit bruised got to her feet. She put two fingers down the smoking hole in her favorite hoodie, and she frowned. "She is insane. I gotta call Player!" Carmen dug into her pockets and then realized she was short one phone. Her expression went to dread. "Oh no."

Outside, Akari parkoured her way up fire escape, she traversed the few floors Carmen leaped her way up to, so she could find the window she jumped in. Akari reloaded her piece of German engineering when a vibration was felt in her pocket. She smiled. It was Carmen's phone. She picked it up and there was an oblivious Player on screen.

"Hey Red, I know you don't want me, you know, being a busybody and tracking you when you're stressed but I can see you're—hey, you're not Carmen."

"Which makes you the famous Player" Akari smirked. "And now we meet, face…to screen."

"Um, yeah. W-Where's Carmen?"

"Just a few floors ahead of me" Akari called. "Oh Carmen? I think you dropped something" she said in a sing-song voice. "I got your precious boyfriend right here!"

Carmen ducked her head out and through the metal mesh floor she saw Akari a floor below her, holding her cell phone.

"Carmen!" Player yelled. "What's going on?"

"Long story! And it's still emerging!" she called "Player, get offline, now!"

"No, I think he should tag along" Akari playfully suggested. She affixed the cellphone to a clip on her chest, giving Player a perfectly voyeuristic fist-person view. "There we go."

"Player! Get offline!" Carmen yelled again.

"I should…but I can't look away" A conflicted Player screamed.

"Hope you like first person video games!" Akari mused before firing her gun a floor above. Carmen ducked back in the apartment.

Akari flipped her way up to the broken and boarded up window as police sirens were heard in the distance and gradually grew closer, no doubt answering to the bevy of frantic 9-1-1 calls over Akari's wanton fully automatic gunfire. (This would've gone unnoticed in Alabama)

She ducked into the dark apartment, which had little in it, other than a moldy couch with a dusty sheet over it, and a breakfast nook by a nearby kitchen. Akari calmly started her search.

"What do you want with Carmen?" Player asked.

"Here's the thing: you really should find yourself another boss, I recommend myself because when I get to Carmen, she's gonna be going away for a very long time. You can be my Player" Akari said trying to be enticing, and hopefully draw out a vindictive Carmen. "I'm what you call a bounty hunter."

"Mandalorian, much?" Player rolled his eyes.

From behind the breakfast nook in the spiderweb infested kitchen Carmen laid in wait, hoping for some idea to come to her. She would get her wish. She opened up a cabinet next to her and smiled seeing some cracked and dusty plates sitting there. She grabbed a few and quickly jumped from cover.

"Hey Player! I might need a new phone after this!" Carmen said before frisbeeing the plates at Akari. She squeezed off a few rounds, breaking two of the plates, but the third hit her right in the face, knocking her over.

A pleased Carmen flipped over and went to grab her phone from Akari's clip, but just missed and flipped right into the couch. "Run Carmen, run!" Player called. As Akari got up Carmen burst out the apartment door.

Akari followed close behind, she turned a corner and found a staircase. Carmen sprinted up the staircase a few floors to the roof, where she ran to the edge, and seven or so floors below to the street, Carmen saw four or five police cruisers stopping in front of the apartment. The officers got out, bullet proof vests at the ready and loaded several more suited weapons for their job.

"Alright, shots fired call, be on your guard!" the officer-in-charge ordered.

"Hey! Up here!" Carmen yelled.

Suddenly, she heard the fluttering of pigeon wings as several birds flew away from the roof. Carmen turned to see Akari standing at the doorway. "Right, make my job easier for me" she smirked.

Carmen looked down to her right and saw a loose piece of concrete. She quickly picked it up and tossed it towards Akari. She fired, hitting it, but it was too close to her and concrete dust coated her face. She quickly dusted herself off and saw Carmen make a parkour jump to an adjacent apartment building, and the chase was on again.

"Not this time, Sandiego!" Akari yelled. She clipped her gun to her outfit and gave chase.

Carmen's first jump was across another small alleyway, and it went off without a hitch and she landed on her feet, but not far behind her was Akari. Carmen did a few more fancy flips on some exposed vent ducts near the edge of this building and flipped her way over the alley and onto the next building, she turned to give Akari a wink. "Impressed?"

Akari did a spin flip and barrel-rolled her way to the next building, also landing on her feet, she smugly looked at her huffing bounty. "Nope, not really."

Carmen darted to the next few buildings. After some more parkour jumps and flips her luck was running out. Carmen saw another building in front of her and thought this would be an easy jump, but looks were deceiving. Carmen went wide eyed as she couldn't stop her running start when she saw the chasm between the buildings was much wider than the first thought. She made her jump but there wasn't enough power and she was able to grab onto the edge of the next building, at least seven stories below her was a service alley. She turned her head to see Akari at the edge of the previous roof. The kunoichi smirked and unleashed her sub-machine gun. She aimed it at Carmen.

"Wait, wait! You need me alive! This will definitely kill me!" Carmen clarified.

"Yeah, so if you could try to land in that dumpster right below you there, that'd be great" Akari smirked, motioning to an open dumpster in the alley a hundred feet below.

Carmen used all her strength to quickly swing up onto the building and laid down, using the few inches of brick edge as cover while Akari fired a few fruitless rounds. "Are you nuts?" Player asked.

"Eh, probably" Akari shrugged.

"Just checking" Player sighed, making a face palm.

Carmen ran to the edge of that building, but there was a street separating the buildings now, too long to make a jump, and it was considerably taller than the one she was standing on. Acting quickly, Carmen looked across the street, seeing it was a one-way street and much narrower than the other three lane with a turning lane street.

Carmen saw a large window and looked to her right to see Akari stick the landing on the building. "Here goes nothing" Carmen sighed. She got a quick running start and made a leap of faith. In cool slow motion style Carmen stuck out her legs as she crashed through the window and summersaulted her way to the painful tiled floor, covered in glass shards and pain.

Carmen dusted herself off and awkwardly looked in front of her. This was a bathroom, and the bath was occupied by a man, in a shower cap taking a bubble bath. "Um, hi. Sorry, uh—where's the front door?" The man emotionlessly pointed to his left. "Thanks, I'll pay for the window, I promise!" Carmen dashed out. A few moments later and Akari crashed the party, also not-quite sticking her landing.

She turned to the very annoyed apartment occupant. "Hey, did you happen to see a—" Akari couldn't finish before the man again pointed to his left. "Thanks" she nodded before running out, leaving the man confused, annoyed, and now drafty.

Outside this much swankier and definitely occupied apartment building, Carmen ran through the hallway with Akari at her heels. Carmen ran to a dead end but perfectly in front of a row of elevators. She frantically pressed the down call button and nervously tapped her feet. "Come on, come on, come on" she pleaded. Akari turned a corner.

"Well, well, well. The great Carmen Sandiego begging for an elevator? What's the matter? Had enough rooftop chases for one evening?" Akari asked.

"I was getting tired of destroying property" she said flatly.

"Which I'm sure they'll add to your list of charges once I arrest you."

"I'm getting really tired of your arrogance. Now put that gun away before you kill someone!" Carmen demanded.

"You're not really in a position to be calling the shots. And no one tells me what to do!" Akari fumed.

Carmen looked to the space between two elevator doors, and spotted a trashcan. Carmen dropped to her back, temporarily confusing her pursuer and then kicked the trashcan at Akari, knocking the gun from her. Carmen got to her feet just as Akari did, and the two circled around one another.

"Fine then, womano y womano" Akari glibly smirked. Carmen got in a fighting stance, her face determined. "Good luck, I'm a master at ninjutsu" Akari explained.

And now an extreme closeup on Carmen where we get a lighted frame of her eyes. "So am I."

Akari lunged but Carmen moved out of the way and threw her into the wall. Akari recovered and kicked Carmen in the gut. She got neutral and threw a few combinations at the attacking Akari, some hitting their mark on her face.

"Had enough, already?" Carmen asked.

"Never!"

Carmen made another lunge and drop kicked Akari to the floor. The kunoichi responded by unsheathing a small dagger, but then quickly re-holstered it, it wasn't sporting to her. She got to her feet and made a roundhouse kick to Carmen. She blocked it but was now vulnerable to Akari making a kick flip and knocking Carmen to the ground.

"Ooh, that's gonna hurt tomorrow" Player winced.

Recovering again Carmen went for more facial combinations, getting a few good clips at Akari's face until Akari grabbed Carmen's punch in midair and upper-cut her on the chin, once again knocking her down.

"Carmen, sweep the legs!" Player suggested.

"Hey Rocky, no one asked you!" Akari spat.

Carmen smiled and did just that, side-swiping Akari to the floor, where she landed with a thud. A triumphant Carmen got to her feet and towered over her pursuer. "Thanks for the advice, Player" she smirked.

Akari knocked Carmen in the ankle, but Carmen anticipated this and did a push-up lunge and grabbed Akari by her wrists. The two fought their way to their feet, still grappling for control of the other's hands.

"Geez, this is the longest elevator ever" Player drummed his fingers on his desk.

On cue, there was the ding of the elevator, right in the middle of the row of three. The two girls froze in their compromising position as it opened up right in front of them. Out popped a maid pushing a little maid cart. She was definitely older, and certainly oblivious to the melee in front of her.

"Good evening" she said with a happy nod.

"Hello."

"Good evening."

"Sup" the sup was Player.

"Weather was hot today" the maid said, pushing her cart further down the hallway.

"It was."

"Totally."

"It's fine where I am!" also Player.

Carmen used this awkward moment to knock Akari to the nearest wall, still failing to unclip her phone. Carmen dashed into the elevator and frantically spammed the lobby floor and the close-door button simultaneously. Akari made a sprint for the closing door.

"Not this time!" Akari jumped in, but Carmen got against the wall and used the force to kick Akari out of the elevator. She gave a sarcastic wave just as the doors closed.

"See, she is good" Player smiled

"Don't you have homework, or something to do?" Akari complained.

Inside the elevator, Carmen caught her breath as she listened to the trivial and annoying muzak playing over the speakers. Carmen was assuming Akari was going to burst through the ceiling of the elevator and turn this into an elevator fight.

"Okay" Carmen panted, catching a much needed breath. The adrenaline was also wearing off, and Carmen felt a sharp shooting pain in her side. She looked at her pants and saw a shard of glass sticking out. "Ow, that's not good" Carmen bit the top of her shirt and pulled out the bloody shard, dropping it to the floor, some blood trickled out. "OW!" Carmen hissed, letting her mouth go of her shirt. "I'm gonna get a big "I told you so" from Shadowsan the moment I get home, I just know it" Carmen sighed in pain.

The elevator dinged and Carmen's jaw was slacked, for as the door opened, revealed a smirking Akari, who made a condescending yawning motion with her hand. "Took you long enough" she got out her handcuffs again. "Now, where were we?"

She tried to grab Carmen but the brown haired heroine did a spin kick and knocked Akari into the elevator wall, nearly taking her machine gun which she since recovered. Carmen ran out into the street, now definitely on the outskirts of Downtown San Diego.

A woozy Carmen fumbled her way into the crowded street, nearly getting clipped by a few cars in the process. She fell to the asphalt but recovered, just in time for Akari to jump in and face her.

Carmen once again got to her feet and the adrenaline kicked in after she threw a few punches at her foe. Having had enough with Carmen eluding her, the threat of not being a sporting challenger wore off and Akari drew her dagger, swinging it at Carmen who flipped her way to the other side of the street.

"Give up, yet?"

"Not a chance!" Carmen called.

Akari went for another thrash with the dagger but Carmen knocked it from her hands mid thrust, or was it mid parry? Anyway, she did a flip kick, knocking Akari right in the chin. Once she recovered she lunged at the red hooded heroine who leaped onto a lamp post and spun around kicking Akari right into the nearest wall.

"Now I'll ask, do you give up?"

"Not with this much cash on the line!"

Akari got to her feet. "Seriously? How much is it? Because this doesn't seem like you're getting out ahead" Player suggested.

"Oh, it's the thrill of arresting Carmen Sandiego that keeps me going!"

Akari did a slide kick, knocking Carmen back into the street. Carmen staggered to her feet just as Akari got out her sub-machine gun, instantly scaring the pedestrians around them. On cue, a police cruiser pulled up on the other side of the street, and two uniformed San Diego Police Officers stepped out, guns drawn.

"Freeze!"

"Drop the weapon!"

This gave Carmen enough of a distraction to lam it down the street. Akari rolled her eyes and dropped to her knees, firing several shots hitting the engine block and the front tires. The two cops recoiled long enough for her to take off after Carmen.

"You could've killed someone!" Player berated her.

"Yeah, but I didn't" Akari deadpanned.

Around the corner, Carmen came to a night club where the awaiting twenty-somethings oblivious to the gunfire two blocks away were waiting impatiently to get into this place where they could buy overpriced cocktails, sweat like construction workers, and dance to noise made by a computer and not instruments. Carmen quickly jumped passed the large bouncer who was about to turn away two potential patrons. "Hey! Get back here!" Akari then tried to muscle her way in, but the bouncer wasn't going to let two slip by him in a row, no sir. "Nuh-uh, nice try. Back of the line."

Akari sighed, and raised her gun, causing the frantic club goers to flee the scene. "No, I think I'll go right on in. That won't be a problem, right?" she asked facetiously. The bouncer nodded and moved the velvet rope aside for her. "That's what I thought."

"Fifteen dollar cover, though" The bouncer nervously explained. Akari raised an eyebrow. "Hey, if you don't kill me, management will."

Akari sighed, and reached into her pocket, pulling out a fifty dollar bill from a well-rounded money clip. "That's for me, and the chick who jumped in before me. Keep the change" Akari lowered her weapon into her jacket and waltzed inside.

"Are all those from your bounties?" a bewildered Player asked. Noticing her wad of large bills.

"Among my other pursuits" Akari smirked.

The dance floor was about as pretentious and loud as you'd expect. Everything was modern and in neon and black light. There was a large dance floor in the center where a "DJ" and I use the term loosely, was at a turntable spinning mad-beats in the back. On the other side was a full service wet bar. There was one side lined with booths, and a second floor wraparound doing the same. Carmen was bleeding as she moved around the dance floor as everyone was dancing like idiots to remixes of top 40 songs and whatever EDM noise was blasting from the speakers. Carmen shook her head and muscled her way to the bar. She got the bar tenders attention.

"Bottle of Everclear!" she called.

"What?"

"Bottle! Of! Ever! Clear!" Carmen retorted loudly.

"Oh, Everclear! You sure? A whole bottle?"

"Trust me, I'm not drinking a drop" Carmen assured him.

Before the guy could start a tab, Carmen turned behind her to see a smirking Akari eye her up from across the dance floor. There was almost a clear path for the two of them to come to blows, but definitely enough room for their eyes to meet. Akari smirked.

A fight was inevitable. Carmen stood up and put on her toughest and bravest face. She turned to the DJ. "DJ? Hey!" she called. The DJ turned to her.

"What?"

"Monster by Skillet!" Carmen called.

"What!?"

"Monster by Skillet!" Carmen called.

"You want what in a skillet!?"

Annoyed, everyone in the club shouted "MONSTER BY SKILLET!"

"Oh, okay!" The DJ went onto the real DJ, his iPhone, and started the song.

As the song played, Carmen made a slide lunge and when she made it to Akari she kicked her over onto the dance floor. The two got neutral and faced one another. Both a bit weaker than their previous meeting.

"Fitting song."

"It's for you!" Carmen said coldly before kicking Akari back onto her back.

She jumped onto Akari who kicked her off. Once again the two faced one another. Akari tried to draw her weapon, but this time Carmen was prepared and knocked it clear on the other side of the club. This time, everyone assumed this was some sort of promotional thing and weren't nearly as scared as everyone else.

Fittingly, the song faded and the next song playing was "Bullets" by Panic Era. Akari went in for another drop kick, but Carmen leaped up and Akari missed and slid right into the bar. She recovered and pulled out her sharpest weapon, a Tanto sword in Damascus steel, in a sheath attached to her hip.

"Play time's over, little girl!"

"Then what was all that other stuff?" Player asked.

"Okay, it was cute at first, but you're really getting on my nerves!" Akari warned before lunging her blade at Carmen.

She dodged her thrusts and swings, she flipped over the chair to a booth. She flipped over just in time for Akari to slice open half the chair. Her blade got stuck long enough for Carmen to sock her right in the face. She leaped back onto the dance floor. Everyone was cheering on the fight now.

"Yeah, go Red! Go Red!" One of the club goers shouted.

"No! Black! Bet on Black!" Everyone placed their proverbial bets as to which one they wanted to win.

Carmen did another kick to Akari, knocking her on her back. The song then faded into "Caraphernelia" by Pierce the Veil.

"Yeah! Red! Red! Red!" came the cheer of the "Carmen fans"

Carmen glibly enjoyed the cheers as she lunged at Akari who quickly got to her feet and kneed Carmen right on the chin, knocking her over, and everyone made that "ooh, that's gotta hurt" face and wince.

Bleeding now from her nose, Carmen again recovered. She shook her head to stay awake, no doubt from all the blood loss, and made a few spin kicks, these missed as a smug Akari grabbed her leg, getting Carmen in a leg-bar.

"Yeah! Black! Black!" the "Akari fans" cheered.

Carmen tried to struggle to get free, but Akari twisted her leg and threw her to the floor. She stood above Carmen as the Carmen fans booed. "Huh, looks like you got some fans" Akari tried to spin Carmen around, but as she did, Carmen side-swiped her to the floor, gaining cheers from her corner and jeers from Akari's.

"If they knew the truth about you, you'd have no fans!" Carmen called.

"Well if they knew your truth…well, you might still have some fans, but still!" Akari rebutted.

The two came to blows yet again, both bruised and bloodied as the ended once again and was replaced by "Out Here All Night" by Damone. Carmen got her footing and made a jump before drop-kicking Akari right in the chin.

"Your skills are weak, Carmen! I've had years of training!" Akari yelled, making another lunge, only for Carmen to get out of the way and for Akari to eat it, right on a table.

"You talk too much" Carmen smugly chuckled.

Laughs and cheers filled the night club, but Akari ran into some luck. She was right by her stuck tanto. She smiled and made a flip towards it, and sheering it out of the chair like the sword in the stone. Carmen groaned.

"Karma's a you-know-what!" Akari yelled before spinning her way towards Carmen. Carmen ducked low and sucker punched Akari before she got get a good thrust. Akari fell to the floor but was quickly recovering.

Carmen saw her bottle of high proof Everclear was on the bar counter. She threw some bills and grabbed it. She dashed out the back door and into the alley nearby as the music faded and she could hear more and more police sirens grow closer to them.

Carmen lowered her pants slightly and got a good look at her bloody wound and winced. "So much ow" she groaned. Carmen twisted off the bottle and chomped down on the cap as she doused her wound in the 190 proof spirit (at 85% ABV you're almost drinking rubbing alcohol)

Carmen shouted in pain. "GAH! Son of a—grrrr!" She spit out the cap and doused some more in her wound to help kill some of the surface bacteria. But before she could react, the door shot open, and there stood Akari. "Aw crud" Carmen groaned. She dropped the bottle and took off running. She got some traction as while Akari tried, she slipped on the spilt Everclear…quite comically I might add.

Player was chuckling. "Don't even say it!" Akari complained. She got to her feet, and saw Carmen was nowhere to be seen.

"Guess you lost her" Player smirked.

Akari looked down at the ground and saw some droplets of blood providing her with a path down the alley and making a left turn. Akari smirked, a perfect trail of breadcrumbs had fallen right into her lap. "Guess I found her" she snickered.

A few blocks away, Carmen was at a medical center. We see her fallen droplets of blood leading up to a back door whose lock she effortlessly picked because she was the greatest lockpick at V.I.L.E. academy, take that, Tigress.

We follow the droplets through a hallway where a bloodstained handprint had touched the doorknob of a medical supply office. Inside, Carmen had procured a few things, notably some surgical sutures, a hemostat, some electrolyte gel, and some actual disinfectant for her wound. Carmen got out the disinfectant and spilled it on the cut, wincing again, but not as much from dumping alcohol on it.

"Ow! That doesn't get any easier" she groused. She then fumbled around the medicine cabinet inside, leaving some more bloody handprints. "Let's see, morphine? No, it'll put me to sleep…um…pain killers, pain killers, pain killers…boom!" Carmen found a bottle of prescription strength pain killers and swallowed two capsules. She then took the electrolytes and turned her attention to her bleeding wound in front of her.

"Okay Carmen, you know how to stitch up a wound…what was that thing Dr. Bellum always said…oh right, over…u-u-under…over again…back under…repeat" Carmen winced, slowly suturing up her wound.

After a few false starts, Carmen successfully cleaned and stitched up her own wound. She looked around the cabinet again and found an Epi-pen. "Beautiful" she sighed, and stabbed the epinephrine shot into her thigh. Instantly, Carmen got an adrenaline rush. She stepped out of the closet and saw a shadow around the corner, the same looming presence she felt when she first started jogging. It was Akari. Carmen looked down and saw her blood trail. "Oh, not good!" Carmen turned to run on the other side of the hallway, but stopped in her tracks when she was confronted face to face with a smirking Akari.

"How did you!?"

"Cause I'm that good, that's why!"

Carmen quickly slid and knocked Akari off her rhythm before taking off again. Akari back to being at her heels. The two fought their way back into the streets, where Carmen spotted a large mixed use office building across the street. She made a mad dash for the lobby, now considerably weaker than before. Carmen made it into the lobby and spotted a glass elevator. She ran to it and thankfully it was on the correct floor. Carmen ran in and the door shut just as Akari entered the building. Akari figured she would be going to the top floor, maybe to continue their rooftop games from before.

"Look, Akari, you know you're not gonna win, right?" Player warned her.

"I always win, Player. One way or another" Akari hopped into the glass elevator next to Carmen's and pressed the top floor.

"Well I got a secret weapon. How about I call the rest of Carmen's crew?" he smugly threatened.

"Oh, good, yeah, send the two redheaded doofuses and Shadowsan. You know, if I could get this close to Carmen, I could at least beat the siblings with ease. Besides, I have to bring Carmen in alive, there was nothing said about her crew, which makes them pretty…" Akari trailed while she briefly took out her Walther so Player could see it through the phone camera. "…Expendable."

"Touché" Player nodded, sighing unhappily that Carmen was in fact effectively on her own.

Akari looked up at Carmen's glass elevator through the…well, the glass, and saw she was in fact getting off at the top floor. Akari made it seconds later, tanto blade at the ready. The floor was a fancy restaurant. Carmen sprinted into the center of the restaurant which was right in the middle of a party. This was quickly interrupted by Carmen making a spin kick after she shoved a standing fern at Akari. The patrons acted accordingly, unlike the partying young adults, these tax-paying older adults were not having this!

Akari recovered. "This has to end, I've had it with these shenanigans!" she called.

"I'd say they're more chicaneries" Player mused.

"You are lucky you're in a screen!" Akari yelped.

Carmen shoved a table at Akari who jumped over it and made a low slide, knocking Carmen into one of the glass windows on the side of the building. She woozily looked up and saw Akari slide another table.

"Get up, Red!" Player called.

Carmen made a quick leap just as the table hit the surprisingly weak window with all its thrust. It broke the window, and the table fell over twenty stories to the streets below. Carmen looked out the now broken window seeing a tanto-ready Akari approach. She snickered a she slowly approached her prey, letting the blade drag against the floor, making an eerie screeching noise.

"Carmen! I know what you're thinking! But this is the One America Plaza building! It's the tallest structure in San Diego! You'll never make that jump!" Player called.

"Yeah Carmen, listen to your boyfriend" Akari snickered.

Carmen sighed, she turned to Akari, she was out of options…or was she. She moved a nearby table into position. "Player! Never tell me I can't do anything!"

The remaining patrons, Akari, and Player watched in amazement as Carmen pushed the table out the window and hopped on, practically surfing on it as it fell across the street to the slightly smaller luxury apartment building.

As it approached its target Carmen made a calculated leap as the table crashed through the window. Carmen made a twist and landed with a thud on the floor of the building. And because this is a cartoon, she was not dead or with severe broken bones…just in tons of pain.

"Okay, that hurt" She sighed. She felt her sides, no shards of glass in them this time.

This apartment was two stories. From the bottom story there sat a woman in the living room watching something mindless on TV, the crash from the table spooked her. Her name was Marcy.

"What in the world!" Before she could react from her floor, another table crashed into the living room, followed close behind by the thud that was Akari. She got to her feet while Player on screen had his eyes covered.

"Can I open my eyes now?"

"Yes, squirt" Akari snickered, slow to get up.

"Who are you?" Marcy asked. "And how did you do that? Do you have any idea how much that window costs!?"

Akari raised her gun. "I'll get you a new window, now why don't you help me out and show me where in this apartment you've hidden Carmen Sandiego!" Akari demanded.

Carmen could hear the commotion from upstairs. The apartment was open to below from the second floor. Carmen was at the top of stairs looking down at Akari intimidating the innocent Marcy. Her blood was boiling. But the stakes were about to be raised.

"Marcy? What's going on?"

Carmen's eyes went wide as she looked down the hall. It was a young boy, maybe five or six years old, wearing dinosaur footie pajamas. And he was about to be traumatized if Carmen didn't do something about it.

"Shh, shh, come on" Carmen whispered, hurrying him back to his bedroom.

From downstairs, Akari heard the shuffling and smirked. "Oh, that explains that."

"No! It's Michael! I-I-I'm his babysitter!" Marcy begged.

"Well, it sounds like you've got two up there. Move it!" she pushed Marcy towards the stairs.

Inside the boy's room, who's name was Michael. He was a quiet and shy boy, typical haircut. His room was much like that of any young boy.

"Who are you? What's going on?" Michael asked.

"Um…let's start with you. What's your name?" Carmen asked.

"Michael."

"Hi Michael, I am…..Black Sheep, and I am here to um, play hide and seek with you" Carmen said thinking on her feet.

"But, it's so late."

"Aw, you're such a responsible young man" Carmen smiled. "But hey, wouldn't it be more fun not to sleep and play? Huh?"

"Well, I mean—"

"Great! Let's hide here!" Carmen got Michael inside of his closet, which was filled with as many un-played with toys as there were clothes. It was one of those accordion closets where you could see through the slits. The door was partially open and Carmen could look right out the door into the hallway.

"Why are you all—" Michael asked before Carmen shh-ed him. "Why are you all beat up?" he asked in a whisper.

"Long story, Michael. And I don't think we have twenty years for me to explain it" Carmen sighed.

"Wait, aren't you supposed to be seeking me? That's how hide and seek works."

"Someone's already seeking me—us. Just be quiet, and whatever you do, don't make a sound, I mean any sound, understand?" she asked, Michael nodded. "Good."

Carmen breathed deeply as she saw Marcy being dragged up the stairs by Akari. "Parent's room is over there !" Marcy called, pointing to down the hall. Akari looked down and saw Carmen's broken window and table.

"Oh, she was here alright. She's still here."

This really brought Carmen back. So back in fact it brought her back to when she was a baby when her father had her wait in a closet while he tried to make a getaway only for her to be found by Shadowsan. Everything seemed like it was now going full circle for her.

Carmen needed a new option. She'd find them in this closet for sure. She looked up and noticed a sizable ventilation duct above them, and her brain hatched another brilliant idea. "Hey Michael, wanna play another fun game?"

Over with Akari, her search of the rooms went nowhere, and now she was dragging Marcy over to the last one, Michael's bedroom. "No! He's sleeping in there! Who knows what he'll think if he sees all this?" Marcy begged.

"Then I guess we'd better hope my target decides to venture out of that room, because it's all that is left" Akari smirked. She burst into the room, but it was empty. She checked under the bed, no dice. She then noticed the closet door, she kicked it open, still nothing. "What in the? Where could she have gone?"

Over in the hallway, another vent duct opened up, and Carmen jumped down, looking into Michael's bedroom, seeing Akari distracted. Michael fell moments later while Carmen caught him. She gently put him on the ground.

"That was fun."

"Shh" Carmen then looked to the room right next to them. "What room's that?"

"Bathroom."

"Good" Carmen opened the door and ushered Michael in.

"But, I don't have to go!"

"Well, let's pretend you do." No sooner does Carmen get those words out, but Akari turned and saw her down the hall.

"There you are!"

"Nice playing with you, Michael!" Carmen called hastily.

"Wait! Will I see you again?" he asked.

"Well you might, I'm guessing your babysitter doesn't want to come back here after this!" Carmen closed the door just as Akari dashed out. Carmen flipped past her and rolled down the stairs.

"You are not getting away from me this time, Carmen!" Akari called.

"You must have said that five rooftops ago!" she winked.

Carmen ran to the kitchen as Akari jumped down to the living room. Marcy ran to comfort Michael, who was no worse for the wear. After a brief kitchen fight. Carmen grabbed a towel in the kitchen and knocked Akari away before heading to the front door, which was its own elevator. Carmen forced open the doors, the elevator was not on their floor. She took a deep breath and wrapped her hands around the towel before leaping onto the cables and sliding down.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Akari, you're not gonna—" Player asked.

"Oh, but I am!" She sheathed her weapon, and with her gloved hands gripped onto the cable and followed Carmen down to the ground floor.

Carmen slid down to the top of the elevator car. She looked up and saw Akari sliding down too and she quickly opened the top of the elevator duct and hopped in. Carmen closed the duct door and pressed the ground button, they were on the third floor.

She could hear thuds and banging as Akari was trying to get in. The elevator made it to the lobby and Carmen ran out. She didn't notice Akari wasn't following her. She made it outside of the building, again not being pursued. As Carmen looked around, the window on the second floor above her broke and there was Akari, leaping down on top of Carmen and kicking her right in the face.

Carmen landed on the sidewalk with a thud, almost too weak to move. Akari chuckled as she approached. Police sirens could be heard in the distance. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha" Akari snickered evilly. "You can't beat me, Carmen! I do this for a living!"

"Okay Akari, you made your point" Player begged.

"No! And I've had enough of her! I hope my buyer likes his target a little beaten up!" Akari kicked the weakened Carmen when she was down. As she was about to throw one more punch Carmen caught her fist before she could connect with her face. Akari looked with surprise as Carmen used every last ounce she had to throw a punch back at Akari. She got up and threw a few more, not skipping a beat with each combination. She punched Akari so hard her pistol fell out of its holster. Carmen saw the opportunity. She saw an empty vendor cart and noticed a napkin dispenser. She grabbed a few napkins and then picked up the gun with them so not to leave any fingerprints. She aimed it right at the bruised Akari who laid right next to a lamppost.

"Don't even think about it!" A serious Carmen sneered, gun aimed right at Akari, who looked at her surprised.

"Red, what are you doing—"

"Player, with all due respect, shut up and let me handle this!" Carmen ordered. Player nodded.

"Come on Carmen, you're not gonna kill me. It's not in your nature" A cool Akari mused.

"Is it? How well do you think you know me, Akari?" Carmen asked. "Maybe there's one thing you may not know about me: I don't like watching criminals abuse people, just like I just saw you do."

"You think I'm a criminal? You're the criminal!"

"Not from where I'm standing" Carmen coldly stated. "I watched you all evening, the way you had no disregard for anyone's safety or wellbeing but your own. You're a sociopath, not some do-gooder bounty hunter. And now you're going down."

"Yeah, right."

"Yeah, right. Because we've got witnesses saying you've held innocent people at gunpoint, breaking and entering, property damage, and of course there's the not illegal things of you just being the world's worst human being."

"You…you're not serious."

"Try me. You're going to prison."

"Carmen—"

"Or test me and I will end you right here, right now! Come on, after all this, do you really think anything is off the table?" Carmen said, then she remembered Zack's Clint Eastwood impression. "Go ahead, make my day" Carmen clicked back the hammer. "Get your handcuffs out. Now."

Akari hesitated as it was clear Carmen wasn't joking. "But—"

Carmen fired a shot into the pavement. "Now!" Akari took out her handcuffs. "Good, now cuff yourself to that lamppost" Carmen ordered. Akari affixed one of the cuffs to her right wrist, and locked it in place to the lamppost nearby.

"There."

"Good. Now, we're here, and the police station is all the waaaaaaay over there. But I don't think they'll have trouble getting to you" Carmen smiled.

"Carmen, wait!" Akari begged. "You-you can't leave me like this!"

Carmen smirked, dropping the gun. "You know, you're right, Akari" She walked over and grabbed her phone from Akari's clip. "Come on Player, let's go home" Carmen said.

"Hallelujah!"

"Now I can leave you like this."

"Carmen, wait! Do-do you know how many people I've put in jail?"

"Yeah, and I'm certain you'll see a few of them again, won't you?" she smirked. "Aw, don't worry, I don't think prison's as bad as you're making it out to be…it's probably worse" Carmen chuckled, echoing the statement Akari made right before their chase began.

"Carmen, please!" Akari begged, trying to break free, as Carmen tossed the handcuff keys just out of Akari's reach. "I'm not the bad guy here! L-look, forget the money, I'll pay you! Anything you want! I can't go to prison!"

The sirens grew closer as Carmen turned her head briefly. "Sorry, I don't take bribes" again echoing a very karma inducing statement from earlier.

"Carmen!" again Akari called.

"Nice try, maybe I'll visit you somed—"

"I can help you find your mother!"

Carmen stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. Akari's nervous looks turned to a smile as this clearly piqued Carmen's interest. Carmen approached a few steps back towards her. "What do you know about my mother?"

"I told you I knew everything about you. I know an address Player doesn't know. I think it's where she may be living currently. Let me go, and I'll give it to you. Heck, we can find her together, you and me. I'll renounce being a bounty hunter for good, I promise."

"Try us! We've scoured the globe for her" Player said.

"Not everywhere. You've checked everywhere you could but you never realized she was hiding in plain sight. Let me go, and I'll help you, I swear."

Such an offer, and on bended knee no less. Carmen mulled it over as the police were starting to converge. This whole evening started with Carmen being so frustrated that she couldn't find her mother, and now here was someone who might actually be able to help. Maybe to help ease the pain of not knowing, that was what was bugging Carmen all along. All she wanted was just to know the truth.

Carmen took another step forward but stopped as Akari put out her hand. She looked down at the handcuff keys. Carmen was a lot of things, but one of those things was her intelligence. After all she went through, with all of Akari's destruction and reckless behavior, there was no way she could free her. Even if it was for her mother, the collateral damage would be too much, and she didn't trust that Akari would renounce her ways. And for all she knew, Akari was lying. But, how could she know.

Carmen's eyes filled with tears, it was the hardest decision she ever had to make in her adult life. Carmen turned away and started to walk as Akari cried again. "No! Carmen wait! I mean it! I promise! Please don't leave me!" she called.

Carmen walked down the sidewalk, stopping to watch three San Diego police cruisers pull up to the apartment building. She watched the crying Akari be loaded up into one of the cars. Still crying, Carmen smirked. "Just desserts." She put up her hoodie and limped down the road, and back home.

"You okay, Red?"

"I will be. If we're gonna find my mother, we're doing this right. No insane degenerate bounty hunter is gonna join us. No way, no how."

"That's the Red I know."

"It would have been nice to know, but; I'm glad I have you, Shadowsan, Zack, and Ivy along, cause together we will find her, no matter what" Carmen smiled, as she continued to limp.

One bus trip later, Carmen got off in front of Carmen Brand Outerwear.

Another car was passing by the road blasting Van Morrison's "Glad Tidings". The camera pans as a disheveled and bedraggled Carmen shuffled her way over to the front door. She opened it, and was greeted by the surprised looks of her associates.

"Carmen?"

"Carm, what happened?"

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine—"

"But—"

"I'm fine, Ivy, I promise. I am so going to sleep, and nobody wake me."

"You're bleeding."

"Oh no, that's dry, I'm fine. Just fine" Carmen closed the door behind her.

Boom! Alright guys, my first one-shot. Woo-hoo! So, tell me what you think? Did you like Akari? Should I bring her back in my other stories? Did I do good, or not? Let me know in the form of a comment and thank you for reading guys!


	2. Trivia!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of trivia about this work to better understand some random references you might have missed.

Run Carmen Run, Trivia!  
This is so you can see ow my mind works or answer any of your questions.

The original title for this piece was Red vs Black and was the title for the first day or so. I had many other ideas including Carmen and the Kunoichi, but Run Carmen, Run seemed more apropos.

This story of mine is uniquely devoid of featuring anyone from A.C.M.E. or V.I.L.E. this was supposed to delineate from Carmen only having enemies from two real camps and show that there may be other unsavory people who wish to take her down. 

There’s a lot of heavy and subtle psychological nuances in the first part of this story, predominantly in Carmen’s growing impatience and anxiety surrounding the whereabouts of her mother: Vera Cruz. 

When Player is listing off Vera Cruz’s former addresses I put one of her old addresses as Los Angeles. In the final episode of Season Two: The Deep Dive Caper when Carmen and Shadowsan inter Vera Cruz’s empty grave, it’s obvious the skyline in the background is the Downtown Los Angeles skyline, so it stands to reason she at least lived there at some point. 

I wanted to establish Carmen and Player’s relationship and how their friendship grew over the course of the series to establish Player’s reaction upon being “kidnapped” by Akari.

When implying about her mother Carmen refers this to Player as “That other thing” vague terms like this are often associated with organized crime to speak about jobs that aren’t exactly lawful to confuse law enforcement agencies who might be listening in on their conversations.

I establish Carmen Brand Outerwear is probably on the coast of the city near the harbor, though the harbor itself juts into San Diego Bay and is blocked by Coronado Peninsula and one must hook around it to get to the Pacific Ocean though we never see the peninsula in any of the shots featuring the HQ. If it was by the ocean and in San Diego without Coronado blocking it, it would have to be in the La Jolla neighborhood slightly north which makes no sense because La Jolla is completely residential while Carmen Brand Outerwear seems to be in the more urbanized part of San Diego. 

When Carmen looks at herself in the mirror with the lights buzzing and the water droplets being audibly loud, this is supposed to signal Carmen’s mental sanity deteriorating over finding her mother while also showing us in the mirror her dichotomy of wanting to do the most good while trying to do something for herself such as finding Vera Cruz. This is the eventual set-up to her final decision to either rescue Akari or leave her to be arrested by the police.

Shadowsan’s concern for Carmen is quite fatherly. This is deliberate as throughout season 2 in particular he is somewhat of a surrogate father-figure to Carmen in contrast to Coach Brunt who was more motherly. 

The Barrio Logan neighborhood, near the harbor is a historically Hispanic neighborhood, typically working class. While I mention it is near downtown, The gentrified Gaslamp district is actually between these two.

Jorge Arciniega has a taqueria at a restaurant that is jutted off of his own home. These are more common in Los Angeles barrios as the city is older and more working class compared to San Diego, but I felt this was more Carmen’s speed instead of some bougee restaurant. 

A Taqueria is an establishment that primarily sells tacos.

Carmen orders a tostada and a strawberry Jarritos. A tostada is basically any Hispanic dish that has a toasted tortilla. She orders hers with carne asada, a delicious beef dish.

Jarritos is a real brand of soda from Mexico and is popular also in the southwestern United States. It can typically be found in any Hispanic specialty grocery market, specialty aisle in a grocery store or Hispanic restaurant. It typically competes with Goya soda. It pairs great with tacos.

Jorge’s appearance is loosely based on an older version of actor Danny Trejo.

Akari’s appearance is heavily-heavily-heavily based on the 2012 series iteration of Karai from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the point where I envisioned her voice actress: Kelly Hu to voice the character which would have been cool if this were an actual episode.

Their meeting is a tense one and is sort of a homage to TMNT where Karai meets April O’Neil for the first time and is tasked with bringing her in to her boss/surrogate father: Shredder, where an intense parkour chase follows.

Akari adds to her bone-fides of knowing everything about Carmen by listing off a few of her aliases including Scarlet Santa Rosa, a name she personally used in the caviar heist from the interactive To Steal of not to Steal episode of the show.

Akari’s original name was supposed to be Atari and a running gag was everyone she introduces herself to would refer to her as the ancient video game system of the same name, which Carmen does but I felt this too lighthearted for this piece and changed her name to Akari, which means lights in Japanese.

Carmen demands to know who paid Akari for the bounty to bring her in. I unleash my inner David Chase by intentionally never answering this question because it really doesn’t need to be answered. Carmen has a host of enemies and it could have been any of them, and the point is, Carmen’s life is fraught with danger and there’s always someone who wants to take her down, the real culprit is Akari herself and her actions.

Akari has a cola Jarritos which is dark, like her colors opposed to Carmen’s fresa which was the crux of naming the story “Red vs Black”. Fresa is also Spanish for strawberry.

Akari is also meant to be more calculating than any villain Carmen’s faced with to date. This is my biggest pet peeve with children’s cartoons; you typically have a hero who beats enemies with ease while the enemies are usually one-note costumed buffoons who let their own ego be their downfall. Akari is more-or-less a character who could have been on a serial drama who was thrust into the world of a kids show. She knows Carmen could escape her but a police investigation should Akari fire her weapon could close down Jorge’s business as police investigations often take weeks to complete. Plus, this could ruin its reputation as being unsafe, which would ultimately ruin Jorge’s livelihood. Akari knows Carmen wouldn’t do that to an innocent person and uses this as leverage to peacefully arrest her and Carmen is forced to acquiesce. 

Akari having her gun subtly aimed at Carmen under the table is a nod to the tense “three fingers” scene in the French pub in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

The parkour chase was in part modeled after the parkour rooftop chase featured in the beginning of the French action film: District 13.

Carmen running through the backyards and commenting on the tenants as she runs past is loosely based on the running home chase in John Hughes’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when Ferris Bueller runs through various backyards to beat his sister home and still play sick.

Carmen runs through the backyard of newlyweds Jane and Rafael, a nod to the character couple from the CW show: Jane the Virgin. Jane and Carmen are portrayed by the same actress: Gina Rodriguez and I thought that would be a cute Easter Egg to see them both interact, however brief.

The two youths playing soccer are fighting over who gets to pretend to be international soccer superstar: Cristiano Ronaldo.

When Akari knocks Carmen off the fire escape I mention this is called “Good news, bad news” a screenwriting technique where your protagonist is in a constant state of getting into a situation and then having to get out of one. This helps keep the viewer on the edge of their seat throughout instead of the hero easily getting out of a jam.

When Akari tosses the shuriken at Carmen, she slides and ducks, barely avoiding one of them, and this slow-motion action sequence was made famous in The Wachowski’s 1999 blockbuster: The Matrix.

Akari uses a Heckler & Koch MP7 (Machinepistole model seven) with a ton of features. This compact German sub-machine gun looks like an Uzi but is much more modern and reliable. Heckler & Koch is one of the most well-known brands of firearms manufacturers outside of the United States. 

Carmen’s phone is found in Akari’s possession and Player tags in tracking Carmen and realizing she wasn’t sleeping. Akari affixes the phone to her armor and Player is forced to act as a voyeuristic body cam so to speak. In this strange way, Akari has essentially “kidnapped” him. And this would bode to be a thorn in Carmen’s side as she is essentially without any help throughout the chase.

Player getting a first-person view of the carnage is somewhat like watching a video game but more closely to the first-person found footage Russian-American film: Hardcore Henry. 

When Akari refers to herself to Player as a bounty hunter Player glibly responds: Mandalorian, much? A nod to the Disney+ Star Wars series featuring Pedro Pascal as the eponymous Mandalorian who is a bounty hunter who learns to be more human. 

When Player yells Run Carmen, Run, which eventually became the title of the story, this is a nod to the famous line from Forrest Gump: Run Forrest, Run!

The pigeons flying away when Akari gets to the roof is also a Matrix reference.

When Akari tries to get Carmen off the roof she says “If you could just land in that trashcan, that’d be great” a nod to Gary Cole’s character Bill Lumbergh’s famous sarcastic remark from Office Space “So if you could be here around 9, that’d be great” which is also the origin of the “that’d be great” internet meme. 

When faced with Carmen Sandiego and no gun Akari remarks they are womano y womano, a play on the term mano y mano which means man and man, meaning they are two women having only their hand-to-hand combat skills to fight one another. 

The extreme close-ups before the fights are sort of a play on classic Kung-fu movies but also to Quentin Tarantino’s: Kill Bill. 

When Player suggests Carmen sweep the legs, Akari sarcastically refers to him as Rocky, the Sylvester Stallone character Rocky Balboa from the boxing movie franchise.

When Carmen discovers the glass shard in her side in the elevator this a reference to Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) discovering the knife in his hip from Quentin Tarantino’s film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, albeit Cliff was high on acid and Carmen was high on adrenaline. Now, it’s not a deep wound, but in real life this would easily have warranted an immediate hospital visit. 

Player notices Akari has a ton of money on her and asks if it is from her bounties and Akari says she also has other pursuits. I also do not answer what they are because it’s irrelevant and you can draw your own conclusions as to what else Akari does.

In the club Carmen procures a bottle of Everclear, a high proof alcohol that is so strong it’s nearly as potent as rubbing alcohol.  
Some actual music is mentioned during her fight sequence with Akari, including: Monster by Skillet, Bullets by Panic Era, Caraphernelia by Pierce the Veil, and Out Here All Night, by Damone. I also mention that EDM is terrible…cause it is.

I was going to have Crawling in the Dark by Hoobastank because the song perfectly encompasses this story but I didn’t have a good place to put it. The song also encapsulates Carmen’s overall journey in the series.

Everyone in the club cheers on Carmen and Akari calling them by their colors, Red and Black, again a reference to Red vs Black. Bet on Black is a gambling reference when playing the game roulette, and red and black are the two colors of the roulette numbers.

When Akari says: Your skills are weak, Carmen, I have years of training, and then Carmen karmically knocks her down she says You talk too much, again a TMNT reference between Karai and April O’Neil, which I thought was a very fitting Easter Egg.

Carmen uses the Everclear to disinfect her wound, given alcohol is a common disinfectant, though she does this in the clumsiest way possible and I do not recommend it…or anything in this story for that matter.

Carmen decides against using morphine as a pain killer as it is known to make one extremely drowsy as is common with opioids. She uses sutures and a hemostat (surgical threat and a pair of surgical scissors) to stitch up her wound. She uses an Epi-pen, an epinephrine shot used to kickstart the heart of those having severe allergic reactions to help give her an adrenaline rush. Again, this is never recommended. 

Player mentioning he could call Zack, Ivy, and Shadowsan to assist and then Akari’s reasoning not to send them was a logical reason I cooked up to ensure Carmen would truly be alone in this fight. 

The building they are in now is One America Plaza, the tallest building in San Diego. 

Carmen and Akari’s table surfing through the air to the apartment building is both nonsensical and impossible, and they would easily be dead or at least severely injured from the fall. 

The babysitter: Marcy, is based on actress Anna Gunn.

Michael, is based on an even younger version of Player’s voice actor: Finn Wolfhard.  
Carmen hiding with Michael is a nod to her father Dexter Wolfe hiding her in her closet while he escapes authorities in Argentina and Carmen in a sense becomes Shadowsan. She even goes as far to call herself Black Sheep.

Carmen says she doesn’t have twenty years to explain why she’s beat up, meaning all this ties into her life’s story.

Akari’s woman-handling of Marcy is probably the worst thing she does in the story, as well as the threat of traumatizing Michael. 

Carmen and Akari sliding down the elevator would also not be possible without death or severe injury.

Akari claiming Carmen cannot beat her because she does this for a living is a nod to the Michael Mann film Collateral, Tom Cruise’s character Vincent says this line to Jamie Foxx’s character Max as he aggressively pursues him and Jada Pinkett Smith’s character through the LA subway. Vincent was also a hitman for hire, similar to Akari.

Carmen absconds with Akari’s Walther PPK pistol, using napkins to hold it to not get her fingerprints on it. This weapon, also German, is the favorite pistol of James Bond, and was the same one used to hold Carmen hostage at Jorge’s. 

The moment Carmen has Akari at gunpoint is a karmic reversal of roles from Jorge’s and is Carmen’s darkest moment in the story and probably in the series. 

Carmen says to Player “with all due respect” a term which is basically another way to say “nothing personal, but…” it’s more commonly used in the northeastern United States.

She remembers Zack makes a Clint Eastwood impression and in threatening Akari says “Go Ahead, Make My Day” a nod to the famous line from the Clint Eastwood character Dirty Harry from the film franchise of the same name, and is probably Eastwood’s most famous line besides “Well, you feelin; lucky, punk?” But I didn’t think that line would fit Carmen’s character. 

The character shifts of Carmen and Akari are deliberate and portray how strong Carmen actually is vs how weak Akari actually is when facing adversity. 

When Akari begs with Carmen that she could help find her mother, Carmen at first decides to believe her but hesitates. She makes the tough choice to leave Akari and find her mother on her own terms. She resists the temptation, healing her wound of anxiety and impatience, effectively the climax of the story. Carmen is sad, but content that Akari will go to prison, proving in life there are no easy answers. 

I also leave unanswered if Akari was even telling the truth, because part of that ambiguity is why Carmen made her choice to begin with and we are forced to take this journey with her and may never know…unless I bring Akari back in future stories.

Many of you know in my works I like to pepper in homages and Easter Eggs from “The Sopranos” and “Breaking Bad” The greatest television dramas ever made. This story is relatively devoid of any, except for the last scene when Carmen limps to the entrance of Carmen Brand Outerwear as the camera pans. This is a Soprano’s reference from the last scene in the season 5 finale “All Due Respect” when Tony Soprano, bedraggled from escaping the FBI as an associate of his was arrested at the same location they were at. Upon returning home and figuring out the FBI was not there for him, he is forced to walk through his backyard as the camera pans while he walks to his backdoor, his wife Carmela answers and remarks: What happened to you? As Zack, Ivy, and Shadowsan do as Carmen walks in. Again, while Carmen’s life is always teetering on being a mind-wiped V.I.L.E. puppet or arrested by A.C.M.E., she still manages to make it home safely.

There you have it. Thank you for reading and if you have any questions or wish to know more about Akari or upcoming stories, leave me a comment!


End file.
